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Former Vice President Mike Pence revealed what he and President-elect Donald Trump said when they greeted each other at former President Jimmy Carter's funeral last week, their first interaction since leaving the White House on icy terms in 2021.
“He greeted me when he came down the aisle. I stood up, extended my hand. He shook my hand. I said, ‘Congratulations, Mr. President,’ and he said, ‘Thanks, Mike,’” Pence told Christianity Today.
Pence, 65, said he was glad to speak to Trump, 78, after their relationship went sour following the 2020 election, with the former president blaming his vice president for certifying his election results in his capacity as the head of the Senate on January 6, 2021. Pence, who served as vice president during the entirety of Trump's first term, became a target of Trump's supporters storming the U.S. Capitol, with many chanting, "Hang Mike Pence."
“The opportunity to speak to the president yesterday is something that I appreciated, I welcomed,” Pence told Christianity Today. “I’ve really been blessed at how much I’ve heard from people around the country who saw [our] handshake, and in that handshake, saw some hope that we might be moving past those difficult days.”
“That’s certainly my hope,” he added.
Pence said he previously attempted to offer a gesture of goodwill, telling Trump he would pray for him during his final days in office, to which he claimed the then-departing president responded "Don't bother."
“I said, ‘You know, there’s probably two things that we’re never going to agree on,” Pence said prior to the January 2021 meeting ending.
“We’re probably never going to agree on what my duty was under the Constitution on January 6 and I’m never going to stop praying for you,” Pence recalled saying to Trump.
“And [Trump] said, ‘That’s right. Mike, don’t ever change.”
Pence also addressed speculation that his wife, Karen, allegedly gave Trump's wife, Melania, the cold shoulder when she passed her before sitting down at Carter's funeral.
“You’d have to ask my wife about her posture, but we’ve been married 44 years, and she loves her husband, and her husband respects her deeply,” Pence told Christianity Today.